Hiesing Succession Crisis
The Hiesing Succession Crisis was a war that took place within the state of Hiesing, between the rival Hiesing and Seurran families. The war was later characterized by sudden and dominant Daravian intervention. Breakout of war When Duke Vernon Hiesing died suddenly in 48 DR, he left behind only a young daughter, Antonia. This inspired his brother-in-law, Girolamo Seurran, to claim Hiesinal rule for himself, and in the immediately ensuing days Girolamo began establishing a base of support within the court. However, Vernon's cousin Paulo went on to declare that the throne deserved to stay in the hands of the Hiesing family. The opinions of the aristocracy were varied, but slightly more favored Girolamo, and so the situation devolved into open combat after little more than a week of failed negotiation. The early skirmishes of the crisis were marked by vague and ill-defined battles, where neither side could properly claim victory, so in the winter of 48 both Girolamo and Paulo amassed and trained larger and better-organized armies. Civil war Through the first months of 49, the fighting was still geographically scattered, since support was mixed and diluted throughout the fields of Hiesing. However, by late summer, each side had concentrated its forces and taken portions of the state as its heartland. The Seurranist forces mainly held the northern and eastern part of the territory, including the city of Hiesing and most of the mines in the Zunerains; the Hiesinal loyalists principally controlled the south and west, which was largely farmland. In the winter of 49, when the armies could not march into battles as easily, espionage became the main form of fighting for both sides— Paulo was especially adept at this, which helped him regain some of the advantage he had lost throughout the year. Thus, Girolamo found several of his generals either defecting or being assassinated, while Paulo himself managed to thwart most attacks on his own army. Thus, the spring of 50 saw Paulo making several key victories, and by Mifether 50 he held most of the mines and was preparing an assault on the city of Hiesing itself. However, sickness tore through the camp in the ensuing months, and Paulo was forced to table the assault until his army recovered. Seizing the opportunity, Girolamo expanded in all possible directions, capturing farms and mines both. Daravian intervention By the spring of 51, Paulo was again in a bad position; his army, its mobility having been compromised, was now largely encircled by Seurranite strongholds. Moreover, the city of Fasar— a key Hiesingist urban center— was conquered in Glacagras 50, causing support to erode for Paulo's cause. In desperation, Paulo launched a final assault on the city of Hiesing in Hortiflos 51. Several defectors in the Hiesing City Watch joined Paulo in this assault, and so after a prolonged battle, the Hiesingites held their capital again. However, this victory was ephemeral, as in the following weeks a large Daravian army came flooding through the Zune Corridors and into the nation of Hiesing. Girolamo tried several times to repel the army, but was consistently defeated by the numerical superiority of Daravian king Marlin II. Paulo, meanwhile, was hesitant to abandon his hard-won city, and essentially allowed Marlin's forces to sweep through the nation with minimal resistance. Marlin laid siege to the city of Hiesing in Rastheros 51, barely two months after his arrival in the state itself. Morale was low, and so the same City Watch defectors who had given Paulo the city opened it to its next conqueror after a matter of days. By the heart of the summer, Hiesing was a firmly established province of Daravia. Category:Wars